Football: Wheatley up to five offers including Bama, Michigan, Syracuse and Penn State

Defensive end Tyrone Wheatley Jr. (right) of Fayetteville-Manlius closes in on quarterback Dan Ginestro of West Genesee during a game last season (Jim Commentucci | The Post-Standard, 2012)

The offers keep pouring in for Fayetteville-Manlius High School sophomore football player Tyrone Wheatley Jr.

On Thursday after school, Wheatley said he got an offer from the University of North Carolina. He’s previously received scholarship offers from Syracuse, Michigan, Penn State and Alabama.

Wheatley is 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds. He earned first-team All-CNY honors last season playing defensive end and tight end for the Hornets.

“It’s exciting,” Wheatley said of the scholarship offers. “To know all the hard work is paying off. I look forward to continue working to being the best in the country.”

Wheatley said Syracuse was the first school to extend a scholarship offer. He said it happened just before head coach Doug Marrone announced in early January he was leaving the Orange to become head coach of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. Wheatley acknowledged the timing of the Syracuse offer as weird, but said new Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer has offered him a scholarship as well.

Wheatley’s father is former Syracuse assistant football coach Tyrone Wheatley Sr., who left the Orange to join Marrone’s coaching staff in Buffalo. Wheatley is moving with his family to Buffalo and will attend a new high school in the fall.

He said Michigan and Penn State followed the Syracuse offer, then Alabama, the two-time defending national champion. He said he was talking on the phone with Tide assistant coach Bobby Williams, who asked him to hang on a second, that someone wanted to talk with him.

“It was (head) Coach (Nick) Saban. He offered me the scholarship,” Wheatley said. “I got to talk to him. It was great. He told me about the program, seems like a nice guy.”

“He said he lived out in Liverpool,” said Wheatley. “That was exciting. Alabama is a great program. It’s fun to watch them. They’re arguably one of the top programs in the last 20 years and they want me to come play for them. It’s pretty cool.”

Wheatley said he’s going to keep an open mind through the recruiting process.

“I’m going to stay open,” Wheatley said. “I’ve got two more years. I’m going take visits. I’m going to stay open to everyone. I’m going to just keep playing hard and when it comes down to it, choose the best school for me.”